Perhaps you heard the biggish news in the geek world that the principle cast members of Star Trek: The Next Generation are reuniting at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. Kind of a coup for the Calgary Con, which is slowly growing into a respectable convention. For some reason they always seem able to nab big Star Trek actors- last year it was William Shatner himself.
Hmm. Just some random reason? I think it has to do with the proximity to Vulcan, Alberta, a small town not too different than all the other rural Alberta towns except they have a big homage to Star Trek in the form of a large model Enterprise and a tourist info centre done up to look like a space station. Anyways over the years they have gone all out, even getting Leonard Nimoy there for Spock Days once. So, you know. Calgary being the biggest city nearby, they get all the Trek stuff. That's my theory anyways. I'm more of a Star Wars guy myself but I have dabbled in the Trek world from time to time for sure.

Don't be fooled, it turned into another miserable windy day. But the sunrise was nice!

Here's a dirty word for you: verschmutzt. According to Google Translate, it's German for dirty. Earlier today I had no idea what it meant, and it was stressing me out a little. I worked overtime today, Sunday you know, twice the pay and all that, but I came in to run shovel which I haven't done for quite a while. They threw me on shovel 11, which is the rental shovel we got to replace shovel 8 and is identical to shovel 9. More or less. A few key differences, such as shovel 11 only comes in German for some reason. So the komputerschmitzen was telling me my somethingsomething was verschmutzt. What are you supposed to do with that? "Uh, dispatch, this is shovel 11. Can you send up a mechanic with a deverschmutzter? Yeah my luftwaffens are reading a little high on the verschmutzty scale. Ach du lieber!"
But thanks to Google Translate I know it was just telling me my air filters were dirty. Which is the coal mining equivalent of saying your battleship is wet.

It was Daddy/Daughter Date Day so Pallas and I went to see Beauty and the Beast in 3D. She did pretty good- she was engaged in the movie, and definitely engaged in the popcorn (hopcorn) and "special drink" aka Sprite. Sometimes she preferred to stand, and that's alright. The glasses didn't seem to bother her either. The Broadways touring show is coming to Edmonton soonly, though to be honest it looks like a not-as-good version compared to the local Citadel version Michelle and I saw a few years ago. Definitely would take her to that if it comes back!
Speaking of local culture, Michelle and I are going to the Symphony next week for her birthday! Sweet! It's been ages. Ever hear of Rachmaninoff? If I am not mistaken, the Consul in Dan Simmons' Hyperion is playing some Rachmaninoff in the opening scene of that book, one of my favourites ever. Also this piece was in the movie Shine which I should watch one of these days.

Motorcycle show! Because Edmonton riders gotta be getting antsy by now eh? What else are you gonna do but watch Sons of Anarchy and Long Way Round and wait for spring?



By the way if you wanted to buy me a bike but weren't sure which one to get me I would take one of these- and get the sidecar too so I can put Pallas in there:



But also I would take one of these for touring around with:



Actually it's just as well I have no money, I woulda bought one of each.

Remember my old car, the one I used to write love poetry to, the one I gave away at 360,000 kms because I thought it was getting a little unreliable for my trips to Hinton and back? The guy I gave it to tells me he just rolled over 500,000 kms and still gets 800 kms on a tank of gas.
Meanwhile, my Saturn Ion has given me trouble since day one, literally. The first day I had it I almost got stranded at the Safeway when it wouldn't start. Took a couple years but I figured out that little issue. Other minor things here and there went wrong, plus through no fault of its own a deer slammed right into my passenger-side mirror and tore it off. It does get beat up quite badly, driving to work and stuff. Anyways, yesterday it gave me a valuable reminder of why it's important to change spark plugs every 90,000 kms or so. Ah well, that's fine. Cost me some money and I had to leave it in Hinton, and then find alternate transportation home. Since it's me, I used the greenest method of all- my green thumb! And since it was Hinton, the guy who picked me up was my old pumpman cross-shift from work. Oddly, we spent no time at all reminiscing about those good old days. Mainly we talked about how great our new jobs are now that we are no longer on pumps.
Well. There's still the matter of getting back to Hinton. Maybe three magic words- kijiji and honda and civic . . .

While washing the dishes Pallas asked me about a stirring fork thing, obviously too big to eat with.
"Whose fork is this?"
"Well, it wasn't mine, and it wasn't yours, and it definitely wasn't Naia's, so it must be mommy's."
"Mommy?"
"Yup. You know what we call that?"
"Mommy?"
"That's an example of deductive reasoning."
"Deguckive weasoning?"
"Exactly. That's when we take all the evidence available to us and use it to draw a reasonable conclusion for questions we don't know the answer to."
Incredulously: "Is that possible?"

The headline said "Lost World" and Antarctica so naturally I thought they had finally discovered the location of the Savage Land with Zabu and Sauron but this lost world is under the sea, complete with new kinds of yeti crabs, so almost as good! More photos please!
You don't care about yeti crabs you say? Why do you even read this blog? But for you there is always the painting squirrel. Or the lion that plays football. Well, soccer as we call it in North America. When are we gonna see animals playing Canadian (or American if you insist) style football? A lion throwing a perfect spiral would probably garner a few views.

And then at midnight shovel 9 honked its horn, not so much to indicate that it was the new year as to tell me I was loaded so I could go to the dump. Woo!
Anyways happy new year to you! I'm off to work.